Friday, 28 June 2013

DIGITAL WORDS / BEAUTIFY: Charlotte Tilbury’s House of Rock ‘n’ Kohl

Last week saw legendary make up maestro Charlotte Tilbury stage a store take over at Selfridges, London.

Contained within her own concept boutique, Charlotte Tibury’s House of Rock ‘n’ Kohl, Tilbury hosted a seven day beauty fest which was plentiful enough to satisfy even the most fervent of beauty junkies.

Inside her House of Rock ‘n’ Kohl there were transformative makeovers on offer courtesy of Charlotte’s personal team of artists, nail art manicures, a gallery of magazine covers whose famous faces Charlotte had worked her magic on, and a carefully curated selection of products featuring such staples as Shu Uemura eye lash curlers, NARS makeup removing water and Bobbi Brown’s Tinted Eye Brightener.

The week’s events were kicked off in style with the unveiling of a light installation portrait of Kate Moss and a grand opening event that was attended by the real Ms Moss herself. Following on from this were daily panel discussions featuring the likes of Lisa Eldridge, Camila Batmanghelidjh, Alice Temperley and Laura Bailey talking on subjects such as using beauty as a force for good and the lasting influence of British style and beauty.

However, the talk that was not to be missed was Saturday evening’s “Rock ‘n’ Kohl Legends” which saw Tilbury talking about her favourite and signature makeup look – the “rock chick” – with super stylist Bay Garnett (who just months earlier styled the ‘70s groupie inspired Vogue shoot “I’m With The Band”) and the original rock ‘n’ roll muse, Anita Pallenberg.

Although she only stayed for half of the discussion – she received a phone call from fellow Rolling Stones romantic mainstay Marianne Faithfull telling Pallenberg to come to her gig at South Bank – Anita was full of anecdotes about the origins of the paired down, rock look she pioneered in the ‘60s.

Reacting against the six hours of makeup she had to endure whilst filming Barbarella and contemporary ideas of glamour, Pallenberg spoke of how she ditched thick pan cake make up for a totally natural face enhanced only by a smudge of kohl, a slick of Vaseline and licking her finger to then push up her eye lashes into a curl. She also revealed that she always has and still does give Keith Richards a black Guerlain eyeliner to use and that when she saw The Beatles play in Hamburg she was turned off by their “preppy” matching outfits so was drawn towards the Rolling Stones instead who would borrow her clothes as they were all the same size.

Following Pallenberg’s departure, Charlotte then described the faces she refers to when creating her own rock chick inspired looks. Name checks went to Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Anita and Marianne, and Bridget Bardot. But the ultimate personification of the rock chick, in Tilbury’s opinion, is Kate Moss.

With the floor opened up for questions from the audience, most chose to grill Tilbury on how exactly to achieve the rock chick look. Her essential tips were to create a feline eye shape with an easy-to-use eye liner, to keep skin looking real and fresh and to top it all off with pale lips.

Charlotte also went on to divulge details of her forthcoming makeup range which is due for release in September. She promised “revolutionary formulas” which will make that undone rock ‘n’ roll look accessible to everyone. Tilbury stressed how much she believes an eyeliner she has created will allow even eye makeup novices to create a perfect cat eye flick due to it being a kohl style pencil with the payoff of a lasting gel. She also let slip that she will be releasing a lipstick shade called “Nude Kate” which is a custom colour that she has been mixing and applying to Kate Moss for years.

Aside from these insights into the cosmetics Tilbury will be releasing later this year the other product everyone just had to know about is Charlotte’s Magic Cream. Known to beauty enthusiasts the world over as a highly guarded custom made formula that Charlotte uses to create that supermodel skin glow that we mere mortals strive but fail to recreate, Charlotte’s Magic Cream is finally being mass produced and sold to the public.

We got our clawing hands on to a sample jar and can confirm that the cream does indeed produce magic results, giving skin an instant illuminating lift and acts as the perfect dewy base for enhancing a naked face or for prepping it for glowing foundation application. It’s a thick cream which encourages you to massage the product into skin but is easily absorbed and leaves a moisturised radiant sheen and has a luxurious scent which comes from the inclusion of nourishing ingredients such as camellia oil and damask rose water.

We’re seriously hoping our 15ml pot of this superlative skin cream will last us until its September release date…